Family Wakes to Find Their Car Destroyed with a Live Bear Trapped Inside

A family is in the market for a new car after their’s was destroyed… in a bear wreck.

On the evening of Thursday, May 1, a Butte County, Calif. resident woke to the sound of a car horn. When they went to investigate, they found a bear rummaging inside their 2010 Subaru Forester.

“I was pretty sure there’s a bear in my car right now,” Amanda Wells told her husband, Geno, according to Action News Now.

When Geno went outside to confirm that there was, in fact, a bear in their car, it was the safety of the animal, rather than the damage to their vehicle, that became their concern. Footage taken from inside the family’s home even shows the bear opening the car door with its paw in its search for snacks.

“I wasn’t frightened because we were inside,” Amanda told the outlet. “I was more worried about the bear — he looked exhausted and overheated. We were afraid he might die in there.”

After over an hour with no sign that the bear would be able to escape on its own, Geno got his pellet gun and fired at the SUV’s window. When the window broke, the bear crawled out safely and returned to the woods.

While the hungry creature managed to escape unharmed, the same couldn’t be said for the family’s Subaru.

In addition to the windshield and windows being broken, the dashboard has been ripped out.

“Funds had been pretty tight so we weren’t able to make our insurance payment and it got canceled so we unfortunately have no way to get reimbursement for the totaled car,” Amanda shared on the GoFundMe page she started to help raise money to purchase a new vehicle.

Wells described the car as “my daily vehicle to get to work and transport our kids,” adding that “me not having a car is going to hurt us.”

The fundraiser has raised $2,750 of the $3,000 goal so far.